Simon & Schuster: 14,000 Titles Digitized

When CBS (CBS) CEO Les Moonves talks about book publisher Simon & Schuster, it’s usually a variation on the same theme: Nope, not a lot of synergy with CBS’s core business, but we love books and we’re not selling it.

On Thursday, Moonves added a wrinkle: the publisher has digitized 17,000 titles. We asked Simon & Schuster, which says the real number is closer 14,000, but they hope to get to 17,000 by the end of the year. Of those, about two-thirds are currently available in print on-demand, downloadable audio, or e-book formats — Amazon (AMZN) Kindle, Sony (SNE) Reader, Palm (PALM), Adobe (ADBE) Digital Editions, and Microsoft (MSFT) Reader.

We tried to get some sales data out of Simon & Schuster, but they wouldn’t offer any, or even a top-selling digital title. Which means we’ll keep canvassing small publishers for insight. Simon & Schuster’s digital efforts are being spearheaded by Elinor Hirschhorn, appointed “Chief Digital Officer” in February.